On January 29, 2025 — nine days into Donald Trump's second presidency — an American Airlines flight collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in midair over Washington, D.C.'s Potomac River. The disaster occurred roughly half a mile from the runway of Ronald Reagan International Airport in Arlington, Virginia, and 67 people were killed.
In an editorial published on February 24, the Washington Post's editorial board expresses frustration with the Trump-era Pentagon for "trying to blow up a good bipartisan deal to prevent such an accident from happening again."
"It's especially galling because the military has previously accepted responsibility for the original crash and expressed support for this compromise before it passed the Senate unanimously," the board argues. "Setting baseline rules for air traffic to prevent plane crashes is one of the government's most fundamental responsibilities. If ever there was a time for Congress to pass a new law, it would be to solve vulnerabilities exposed by a tragedy that killed 67 people."
In the U.S. Senate, Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Washington State) have been working with the Pentagon on legislation. Meanwhile, the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform (ROTOR) Act, according to the Post's editorial board, addressed aviation problems and was expected to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives — but the U.S. Defense Department "urged opposition at the 11th hour" and claimed it would cause "operational security risks affecting national defense activities."
"The real reason for the reversal appears to be that a competing House bill would offer the military more latitude to ignore new rules about using transponders," the Post board argues. "But the (Trump) Administration's previous expression of support shows that House members can be confident passing the Rotor Act as it stands won't jeopardize national security, and they don't need to create loopholes that might allow for a catastrophic repeat…. The Pentagon should answer to the people's elected representatives, not the other way around. "